Decarbonizing Shipping: Scaling up Production of Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Ship Fuels

Presenter: Paul Blomerus, Executive Director, Clear Seas
 

Paul leads the team at Clear Seas as they work to advance the safety and sustainability of marine shipping. Before joining the organization in 2020, he worked in a variety of industry roles including supply chain, product development and strategy positions for Westport Innovations and Rolls-Royce. Through his consulting work, he has specialized in the impact of technology on the transportation sector and building innovation clusters through university research. He holds a PhD in engineering science from the University of Oxford.

Topic: “Decarbonizing Shipping:  Scaling up Production of Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Ship Fuels”

Potential hydrogen-based zero-emissions alternative fuels like ammonia, methanol and methane are receiving a great deal of attention as a way to decarbonize large ocean-going ships. This presentation will examine why major shipping companies seem to be taking different pathways to achieve this goal and what roadblocks they will face along the way.
 
As the global shipping industry begins to chart a course towards 2050 and achieving net-zero emissions, a great deal of interest has begun to be focused on alternative fuels based on hydrogen. Options under consideration include ammonia, methanol and methane. As part of ongoing research on reducing greenhouse gases from marine fuels, Clear Seas has identified a number of potential roadblocks not only in the performance, safety, storage, and feasibility for use on existing ships of these fuels, but also on the scalability of renewable hydrogen production as a feedstock. In this presentation, Dr. Paul Blomerus, Executive Director at Clear Seas will share the latest results from Clear Seas’ research and will identify critical areas of focus for technology and policy innovation. He will also explore the challenges associated with scale up of production and opportunities for British Columbia.